Kyocera's Solar Panel Moonroof for Prius

The new and revamped Toyota Prius announced yesterday will not only be sold at a 12 percent lower price point compared to the older Prius model, but will also come with a few additional features including a solar panel for a sun roof.

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The new and revamped Toyota Prius announced yesterday will not only be sold at a 12 percent lower price point compared to the older Prius model, but will also come with a few additional features. An optional add-on to the new Prius is the "solar panel moonroof" which is both a solar panel and a sunroof comprised of 36 15 x 15cm cells.

The panel harnesses solar energy to power the ventilation fan and air conditioning system. It was first conceptualized to charge the car's battery, but Toyota scrapped the idea altogether "because repeated charging and discharging may deteriorate the battery." Kyocera's polycrystalline silicon solar cells which were used for the panel have an efficiency rate of 16.5 percent, rendering the whole system capable of generating around 50 watts of electricity. Toyota employed a strict durability policy on the panels to ensure that when the car drives on rough terrain, the cells won't detach or break.

The solar panel moonroof costs an additional $2,076 on top of the car's base price. Another difference between a Prius with a solar roof and a model without is that the latter employs a roof with a slight depression in the middle while the former has a flatter roof and a larger frontal protection area. Toyota claims there is no difference in air resistance between the two, and hence there would be no difference in speed.